I Chose to Run Instead of Breaking

Chapter Eighteen: In a Wake of a moment

There was something wrong, with seeing Blue so still.

Blue was always so vibrant and alive, not laying on a bed barely clinging on. Mismatched eyes stared at Sci, who was nervously clicking a pen open and close on a clipboard.

Sci took a deep breath and passed the clipboard to him, Error looked down as the notes revealed everything so far of the diagnosis.

"Well...?" Dream asked worriedly.

"He needs more Calcium"

Dream fell over comically, he snickered.

"Error please," Dream said seriously, exhaustion on there face as they got up.

"We both know the truth, to survive Blue would need an apple of Negativity as his soul is near shattering," Error replied.

"Good news, he's not my on list yet," Reaper chirped from where he floated in the air.

A whimper escaped Dream, that wasn't exactly a comfort.

"Stop crying..." a voice said weakly.

"Blue, your awake," Dream said clutching his friend, his brothers hand.

"I thought I told you to stop crying Dream, it won't bring mother back..." Blue said, then fell unconscious again.

"Brother..."

"So beautiful!"

Dream, Error and Sci turned and stared at Ink who was eating popcorn as if it was a movie. Stretch, who was behind him slapped his skull.

"Ow.... why?" Ink whined.

"Blue dying, ring any bells," the Papyrus scowled.

"Oh right, I forgot," Ink said cheerfully, everyone else sighed in frustration of the soulless wonder.

"Like Goldy," Error sighed, walking over to Blue and scanning him like he did to AU's he had to destroy.

"Goldy?" Sci asked looking at Ink with a why are you here look.

"His goldfish, he killed it by accident," Reaper said with a strange snerk of laughter.

"Wahhhhhh! Goldy!" Ink cried curling into a corner, a cloud of rain above him. He was poking the ground, and mushrooms we're growing there.

"It died three hundred years ago," Error grumbled, having to live through too many goldfish Au's during that time.

"INK! Stop that at once!" Sci yelled angrily, he did not need a repeat of mushroomland.

"Okay!" Ink chirped happily, bouncing up doom and gloom forgotten.

"Focus please," Dream begged tearfully, this situation was going out of control very quickly. A hand landed on his shoulder, looking up he saw Stretch was there.

"This is Blue, he's too stubborn to get some fakemare take him down," Stretch told him.

"Fake... mare?" Dream said wide eyed, then broke down laughing.

They gave Dream a moment to get the laugh out of his system, Blues true identity was putting him through an emotional windmill.

"He was going to tell you, about his real identity... he had no idea a Fake had taken his place till the Fake appeared," Stretch said softly.

"I.. would have liked that."

"Put this on him," Error said passing a string wrapped bundle to Dream, a strangled soul broken gasp escaped Dream as the strong released a familiar circlet.

"It.. still exists, I always thought Nightmare.. no the Fake destroyed it," Dream said lovingly touching his twins circlet.

"He gave it to me to keep safe, once he knew I realized who he was," Error told him "Due to the fact he has spent a lot of time in the AntiVoid and its been in there for years I've shifted its code a bit to stabilize him for now."

"I wish.. I hadn't wasted so much on the fake, I could have seen Blue as so much more if I hadn't been so much focused on saving a fake of a brother," Dream said sadly, gently slipping the circlet onto Blue. He touched his twins face, to think Blue aka Nightmare hadn't aged.. was still as tiny and young as he had been in his memories.

"We can't change the past, only walk to the future," Sci pointed out.

"Tell that to TK," Error grumbled.

Dream chuckled and kissed his twins forehead "In some ways I've been rather an idiot, hyper focused missing so many things... I burned to many bridges. I'm not going to allow anyone to burn this one"

"What now, you said stabilize?" Sci asked hopefully, he had moved over to a computer while they spoke to continue looking over readings of Blue.

"Someone is already helping him a bit, but Fakemare has to go down he's stopped hiding behind his gang,"

"What... please tell me its not true," Dream said in horror, everyone had realized the Fake had no issues sacrificing those with no use to him.

"Afraid so, he's somehow kept the souls. Couldn't even gather them," Reaper scoffed.

Dream forced back the sorrow he felt, he could break down later.

He had liked Cross, having felt the other hadn't really belonged with the Fakes gang. So broken, yet part of Cross wanted to heal and to be a better monster.

Now the cow fearing monster would never have that choice.

"So what's the plan?" Stretch asked.

"We trick Fakemare into a trap AU Ink can make, and we rip the apples from him," Dream butted in anger in his voice.

Everyone stared at him in surprise, as Dream rarely got angry.

"I just got my brother back, I'm not loosing him again."